Friday, September 20, 2013

"The fact that people won't go vegan immediately does not mean that we should ever promote anything less than veganism as morally okay. We ought always to be clear that if animals matter morally, we cannot justify consuming them. If someone who cares about animals wants to do less than go vegan, or want to go vegan in stages, let that be their choice and not our recommendation. We should *never* promote non-veganism as a morally good thing. We should *never* put a stamp of approval on animal exploitation--however "humane" it is (and it's never "humane" anyway)." ~Gary Francione

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Here is the facebook post I wrote: "Anyone who thinks there is no moral difference between, say, driving a car or taking public transport in vehicles that to our dismay may contain animal by-products, and for example eating a piece of cow's milk cheese, obviously doesn't realise that animals are property and what we are trying to abolish is slavery.

There is a *huge* difference between the two examples. As vegans, we are frustrated, horrified and dismayed when we learn that there are some things that we must use that against our will contain animal by products. Such as sidewalks or footpaths, plastics, car tyres etc. Huge difference.

The difference is thus: those things, those industries, those products, are not products based upon animal slavery. They are simply not. It is perfectly conceivable to have cars, concrete, paint, plastics etc, without any animal by-products in them whatsoever. And we are going to abolish that too, you just wait.

However, cow's milk cheese is a product entirely based upon, produced by and dependant on animal slavery, and slaughter. You will *never* have cow's milk cheese without exploiting cows. It is a *slave* industry.

So while as vegans we are working towards eliminating as much harm to others as we can, such as living in a world that doesn't use plastic at all would be lovely, a world in which no vegetable or fruit is produced with nonhuman slaves' manure, and in which we develop alternatives to a lot of harmful products and practices while of course eliminating any animal by products in their making, the NUMBER ONE THING we must do now is ABOLISH SLAVERY. And you *don't* do that by making twisted, incorrect comparisons between products such as vehicles (nothing to do with animal slavery, and yes we hate that there are the products of exploitation in there against our will, and watch us abolish that too! - but those products are in no way dependant on animal slavery) and animal products that people eat, wear or use that are *intrinsically* and *unavoidably* from slavery.

I hope that clears up this silliness so we can get on with being consistent in our advocacy and no more making excuses for "vegans" who deliberately and directly participate in slavery by reminding us that we can't levitate, build entire new vegan painted city buildings/homes on our own (yet) or avoid the use of transportation to our jobs.

Hey - if you can levitate - more power to you I am jealous. If you own a vegan car I love you for it. If you live in a custom house that is completely vegan painted/no animal by-product containing plastics/computer and phone the same - more power to you that is where we *all* should be headed.But don't get it twisted, and please don't EVER EVER justify or defend slavery."

Quote from the essay:"The abolition of animal exploitation requires a paradigm shift. It requires that we reject violence at its most fundamental level. It requires a recognition that violence is inherently wrong.The abolition of animal exploitation requires a nonviolent revolution–a revolution of the heart."

Here is the link to the Huffington Post article that I mentioned in the beginning(NOTE - I forgot to mention that it only addresses diet *sigh* oh and don't look at the "celebrity 'vegan'" slideshow - MFIoF could write a few articles about that alone): Interest in Vegan Diets on the Rise

Thursday, April 18, 2013

This episode I address the one of the common issues arising from the dialogue about vegan advocacy, specifically those who say it is preferable to concentrate on the dietary and health aspect of veganism when advocating to people, rather than the moral issue. Needless to say, I disagree.